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Although the Windows operating system comes with its very own Notepad, the editing and formatting options of its generic text editor are limited to just a few basic things. The notepad that comes with all Window OS can only do simple things like creating, opening and reading plain text file. It is no wonder therefore that a lot of third party Notepad alternatives have taken up space in the market share.
There are so many notepads that have adapted to the Windows OS, that if we decided to touch points on all of them, it will be a very long week, Therefore, we will be focusing on the four main ones with the most extensive options and tools for the Windows OS. They are;
#1 Notepad++
This free text editor software is a great alternative to the notepad that comes with the Windows operating system. It supports not only syntax highlighting, but also autocomplete function and regular expressions. These as well as the extra features the Notepad++ comes with, makes it a very useful text editor for handling simple and complex tasks alike.
Here are some functions of Notepad++
- It is specially designed for scripting and it supports various programming languages like C, C++, Pas, al amongst others.
- It highlights syntax when used for code programming
- Users have the option of customizing its interface to soothe their taste by selecting numerous formatting styles from its style configurator.
- It comes with its own tabs to help users work on different projects simultaneously
- It also comes with a spell checker and macro reading option
- It’s functional ion list panel helps display function items in text documents.
- Not satisfied with its features? No worries, with its plug-ins function, users can enhance its features to meet their particular needs.
- The software even has a portable version that can either be unpacked from a .zip file to your PC or can be run from a USB stick.
#2 EditPad Pro (or Lite)
This is another notepad that works well with Windows. Although it is quite similar to Notepad++ mentioned earlier, it still has its own unique features that makes it stand out. It comes with a freeware and proprietary version. Although there is a pro paid for version which retails for just €39.95 and supports a wider range of languages. This notepad is an all purpose text editor, that is, it caters to software developers by supporting programming languages like C, C++, HTML, C#,Visual Basic,CSS , XML amongst others. It also supports word wrapping and proportional fonts.
The interface of this notepad is simple and clean, with one of the best search and place features any user could ask for.
Here is what you can do with this notepad
- Comes with a tabbed user interface design that promotes customization on its preferences window. That is, users have the option to configure things like the keyboard navigation, mouse cursor, tab colors, editing option and many more.
- The pro version includes syntax coloring and a spell checker on its interface.
- This notepad also has a hexadecimal mode to support binary editing and a file navigation system.
- Users don’t have to worry about constantly saving their work, because it’s pre-applied auto save and backup feature ensures data is never lost. What more? You get limited undo and redo, even after you have saved you work.
- No doubt this notepad has several interesting and useful features, one of such is its ability to allow users to create a portable version of the program with just a few clicks!
- Lastly, the Editpad has a clip collection which serves to save text snippets and source code templates for users.
#3 Atom
This notepad has gotten a lot of recognition for being the notepad for the 21’st century. Being primarily designed to meet the needs of today’s programmer, we can see why. Users are allowed to customize the interface to fit their needs, extend the software by downloading and installing plug-ins, amongst other things. While these features are amazing in their own right, here are the features that will blow you away:
- The software has a modular design which enables users configuration without having to actually open a config file.
- The software has a tree view that provides drag and drop files and folder support for users.
- The notepad is set apart from the rest with its customization options. This option allows users to configure the user interface of the notepad, and syntax themes and hotkeys to further enhance the software with packages. The notepad even has a developer mode for users to edit the program with.
#4 PSPad
PSPad is another great notepad for Windows users. It has a text editor for programmers, but it also includes an advanced text editing option. This notepad is a freeware compatible with the most recent Windows version, its developers keep updating it to ensure it is performing at its maximum.
PSPad has a portable version for USB drive, and is said to have more tools than most third-party text editors out there. With this notepad, users can open ASCII Table window, code explorer, macro tools, color selector window, and even color Translator.
The view menu on the interface supports spell checks, hex edit MODE, and line numbers. Most developers love it for website design because of its expansive HTML menu which contains HTML page preview, HTML code check, text to HTML option and even the reformat HTML code option.
Other functions of this notepad include:
- Syntax highlighting, a built-in file transfer protocol and macro reading.
- It has both an integrated CSS editor and a full HEC editor. These editors have features like spell checker, text difference, search and replace, auto correction, multiple tabs, and so on.
Summary
It is clear that there are a lot of notepads for windows, however, they all have something that is unique to them, and finding out what that is will help you in choosing your ideal notepad.